The Shinjuku Police Station and Security Division of Tokyo Police Department announced the arrest of a woman, 28, with no fixed address and unemployed, on April 24 on suspicion of violating the Anti-Prostitution Law (waiting for customers, i.e. tachinbo) for standing on the street in the Okubo Park area in Tokyo.
In the past, they have been cracked down on prostitutes red-handed, for example when entering a hotel with a customer, but this time they obtained an arrest warrant for past conduct and arrested a woman when she came to the area. The Tokyo PD is hoping that the new approach will have a deterrent effect.
She allegedly waited for customers with the intention of prostituting herself in the area of Okubo Park in Shinjuku Ward at around 6:30pm on April 11. She is said to have remained silent.
According to the police, the woman was witnessed standing (tachinbo) on several occasions from around October 2023, negotiating with a man and heading to a hotel. After obtaining an arrest warrant for her conduct on April 11, the police arrested her waiting for customers in the area on April 23.
Prostitution in the area was temporarily on the decline by the end of 2023 due to increased detection by the police, but has started to increase again since January this year.
A senior Tokyo Metropolitan Police officer said that they will crack down on cases of repetitive and malicious behavior where people stand on the street repeatedly waiting for customers. It will serve as a warning to women waiting for customers (tachinbo).
